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Raleigh County to pair students with iPads

BECKLEY -- Raleigh County schools will be the first in the state to pair its older students with their own iPads.

Beginning August, all third through 12th graders in the county will get their own iPads to take home.

Superintendent James Brown told WOAY that many textbooks don't reflect recent history and believes the devices will change the way students learn and teachers teach.

"We don't want people to think that the device is going to be teaching students," Brown told WOAY. "We know that the greatest impact in the classroom comes from that teacher. We do believe this will be a support to help them become even more effective."

Kindergarteners through second graders will get one iPad to share between two students. Prekindergarten classrooms will get five iPads each.

"They go home, throw on their video games, their phones -- they're multitasking," said Rachel Pauley, the Principal of Beckley-Stratton Middle School. "Right now, this will bring us to their world. With the iPads, we will be able to give them that excitement and that engagement just like what they go home to."

The Apple products were leased with redirected funds from the school board.